In her book, My Brilliant Friends, Miller merges memoir and biography to create a portrait of her friendships with three prominent feminist scholars: Carolyn Heilbrun, Diane Middlebrook, and Naomi Schor.

In separate interviews with The Graduate Center, they discussed their books and their motivations for writing them.

Over seven years near the beginning of the 21st century, Distinguished Professor Nancy K. Miller lost three dear friends. She’d met and fashioned friendships with the scholars Carolyn Heilbrun, Naomi Schor, and Diane Middlebrook at varying points in her academic career. They had in many ways helped her identify and pursue her passion for writing, but also helped her navigate the fraught nature of academia in the 1970s, when women were fighting for recognition as well as a seat at the table. Without them, Miller not only felt bereft, but unsure of who she was.